Park Day with Cara and Di

When we found out last year that we were moving back east I immediately began talking with my cousins Cara and Diana about meeting up since they live in New Jersey and New York City. I was so glad that we made it happen and got together in New Jersey. Cara lives under 10 minutes from my brother-in-law's family where we were staying and Diana was so nice to travel 2 hours from NYC on different subways and trains to get there! Thanks Di!! We met up at a park and let the kids run around while we chatted. I love these two and it's so fun to be back east with them.

 All of these pictures are from the very talented Diana, whose pictures were far better than the little snapshots I took.

 darling Olivia, Cara's daughter

 and Diana's cute little boy Oliver

 Bryn turns into a squirmy crazy person as soon as we tell her to pose for pictures, so this is the best we could get of the four kids.

Love you, Cara and Di!

Bronx Zoo

Another fun thing we did on our Thanksgiving trip was visit the Bronx Zoo. We hadn't been to the zoo in about a year and a half, so it was really fun for Bryn.

With my sister in law Tyra and my wonderful mother in law.

I didn't get any good pictures of the animals, but the tiger exhibit was really cool.

Maybe our favorite part of the zoo was watching these turtles! That poor little turtle got flipped over onto its shell and it was kind of comical to see him shimmy around and dance his little legs around, trying to flip over. His friends marched around him, but offered no help. (I'm sure a zoo keeper eventually flipped him over, right?) Bryn is still concerned about this turtle and keeps asking if someone flipped him back over. When the turtle initially flipped over Bryn announced "Mom! I just saw a turtle DIE!!!"

One of the coolest parts of the Bronx Zoo is all the old architecture. There are so many beautiful, old buildings.

Kind of an interesting "cage" for rhinos, right? I thought the big domed roof was kind of cool.

Apparently, there's no climbing allowed on this rhino. Oops!

With my awesome sister in law Jess. Her fourth little boy is hiding under that blanket!

My oldest niece Abby. Abs is just the best and it was so fun hanging out with her! I wish we lived closer because she was my crafting buddy every night and she was so darling with both my girls.

Josh and Bryn loved the bug carousel and rode it about five times in a row. Josh was in heaven :)

Yay for the Bronx Zoo! It occupied us for over 4 hours, until we got kicked out at closing. Such a fun outing!

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Last week we went to New Jersey for Thanksgiving. Such a fun, fun, fun trip! One of the highlights of the trip was going to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade....

This was our first time in New York City as a family. 

Josh's brother Jake works in NYC and one of his partners has an awesome office building on sixth avenue right next to the Macy's building. We were so grateful for Jake's "hook-up" because we had such a great time watching the parade from a warm third-floor office!

We had to get there early, before they totally blocked off the streets, so we had about an hour to eat the catered breakfast and hang out. Bryn loved reading with her Grandma Hawkins.

 My mother in law, cute new nephew, Josh's brother Jake, and Josh

Please ignore Bryn's bedhead (we had an early start that morning!), but I love these two cute girls!

Jake and Tyra's kids were so, so sweet with Mya. She was in heaven all week, constantly being held and played with. 

Mya fell asleep before the parade even started and spent the rest of the morning napping under someone's desk.

Once the parade began we just watched it from our seats or got a closer look at the windows. 

 Bryn's favorite balloon was Buzz Lightyear, but Kung Foo Panda was another favorite.

 Bryn and her cousin Isaac

 Big thanks to Jake for making this happen! It was such a fun experience to see the parade in person and have so much fun hanging out with family.

Five Months

 Can't believe my babe is 5 months old! Every stage is great, but I'm loving the stage she's in right now. She's so smiley and happy and easily entertained. She sleeps from 10:30 pm to 7:30 or 8:00 am, and eats at 8:00, noon, 3:30, 6:30, and 10:00. Sometimes she doesn't need the 6:30 feeding, so we just skip it or do a little rice cereal instead. Feeding is a little more difficult lately because she gets giggly and distracted anytime she sees or hears Bryn. 

She LOVES Bryn and gives her the biggest smiles. Mya has the best billy goat laugh around. She laughs the hardest when she sees anyone jumping, especially Bryn, so we have regular jumping contests to get Mya laughing. 

She grabs everything in sight and tries chewing on it. She's also super slobbery lately, so maybe she's doing some early teething?? 

She is still not rolling over (except for fluke rolls every few days). I'm pretty sure she should be rolling by now(!), but we're okay with that. Brynlee rolled early, crawled early, walked early, ran early.....and then she never stopped running. We've been chasing after her ever since everywhere we go. So I'm totally okay with Mya still being immobile :) I'm convinced that with Brynlee being my energetic, friendly, active child, Mya will be my calm, quiet, reserved child. We'll see!

Mya is such a dream baby and we couldn't love her more!

Dartmouth Football

Saturday was the last home football game for Dartmouth and our friend who works for the football team rounded up tickets for a big group of us. So fun! I couldn't even tell you who won the game, but it was a good time! I don't think the Ivy League schools are really known for their football, so it was actually more like a high school football game. That actually made it even better because Bryn had plenty of space to perfect her cheerleading skills.

 I also feel like this blog post would be incomplete without a mention of the Dartmouth pep band. I know pep bands are sometimes comprised of an interesting crowd (no offense to all of my siblings who did band), but Dartmouth's pep band was truly one of a kind. So many things I could say about the band, so little blog space. I looked up at one point in the half time show and saw about ten of the band members running across the field without pants. Did I miss the explanation? Is this normal for pep bands? There was also some choice language in the pep band cheers that probably shouldn't be shared on the blog. I guess, we're not at BYU anymore :)

I love these bundled up girls! I love our Dartmouth friends! And I love fun little outings like this with our fam of four! And I have to say, it is really fun to be in student mode and to be sitting in the student section of a football stands....this time with children. Kind of fun. 

P.S. Maybe my favorite part was at the beginning of the game when the first Dartmouth player got tackled. Bryn turned to us with a shocked face and said "But.......I love Dartmouth, Mom. And...... someone just tackled Dartmouth, Mom."

Study Buddies

 This is a nightly occurance at our house. Josh studies on his laptop and Mya sits propped up next to him, just smiling and offering moral support. I don't know why this is so cute to me, but I love it! 

Look at how hard Josh is studying! I mean, he's even got the serious eyes and hand under the chin....grad school is no joke!

 Awww.....look at those two! It's a toss-up who is cuter! 

(Josh is going to love this post!)

Thanks Mya for being dad's partner in crime in the evenings, so your mama can have time to paint or sew or blog about how you're in the front room sitting on the couch with dad.

4 Month Check-Up...a little late

28" long (100th percentile)

16 lbs 12 oz (93rd percentile)

So it looks like she's going to be a volleyball player with her height.....

or maybe a shot putter with her girth?

We'll just have to see how things pan out, but both are great options.

I love love love this little cutie!!!